The deposition of microbiological materials in an aqueous stream is often problematic to the proper function of a process that contains the aqueous stream. Various techniques have been deployed for measuring organic and inorganic deposition in papermaking processes, but these techniques often lack the selectivity necessary to differentiate a biological deposit from a general organic/inorganic deposit such as pitch or stickies. As a result of this lack of sensitivity, current protocols do not have the sensitivity to capture the deposition environment of dynamic processes such as papermaking processes. Therefore, an improved method of monitoring deposits is needed in the art of process stream deposition control.